police motorcycle manuevers

today i'm giving you a pretty cool video of a police officer navigating a police issue harley through an obstacle course. damn fine work. i do recommend that you turn off your sound so you don't have to listen to lowrider.



i've taken a motorcycle course and have learned some of the techniques demonstrated, but am in no way anywhere as good as this good. sick skills from this guy. and, it's rather impressive that he's doing it on an old school harley not a bmw or kawasaki or whatever smaller bikes used now.

jimmy justice busts the nypd

saw this interesting video on boing boing. essentially, it's this guy videoing and interacting w/a member of the nypd.

warning, the language is very salty. or blue. or nsfw. or whatever way you want to acknowledge that there is language that may be offensive, and so use discretion of when you'll watch this video.



cops.

maybe portland isn't so hip

so, numerous artsy types from fresno have fled, errr, relocated to portland. i wish them all the best in their endeavors.

but, the grass isn't always greener. you see, the portland pd thinks a camera may be a weapon (2nd link has video). and, if you videotape the police illegally searching your neighbor's property, they may tase you. that's right, if you videotape the police on private property, you may be: a.) shot with bean bag gun; b.) tasered; c.) charged with disorderly conduct; and d.) criminal trespass. trespass? according to the story, it seems like he was a friend's property (which more or less implies permission doesn't it?). it was the police there without permission.

that's not fun. or hip.



*cross posted @ f.f.

florida student tasered at kerry speech

i'm posting this video, along with the commentary that the guy that posted it says.
"I couldnt get to my camera in time to record his entrance, but this guy basically comes running in with 4 or 5 cops in tow and says he has been running around trying to get in to ask a question and the cops are going to arrest him for it. they almost do it then but Sen. Kerry says he will answer it. he then answers a previous question someone else asked (i cut that part out because it isnt important to this video) then the guy asks his questions and when he is done all hell breaks lose. to the cop haters: i have no doubt the cops were going exactly by the book, the problem isnt them, its the book! they were doing their job and looked just as confused as this kid (this isnt something that they deal with often)."

this may turn out to be a big deal, it may not. some issue i'm curious about:
1. did kerry actually win? what sort of proof is out there on this claim?
2. is this police brutality? how do we define that? i'm sure there are issue of reasonable force, but i wonder about tasering someone, in handcuffs, especially if they're not being violent. i remember a case in madera a few years back where a suspect was in cuffs, in the back of a cop car. the officer mistakenly shot the guy, but said she was going for her taser and grabbed the wrong weapon. now, obviously that went too far, but the whole idea that they were going to taser someone that was already restrained, in custody bothers me.

freedom of the press?

adam, when you go to miami, don't take any pictures of the police. you may end up in trouble.

they're watching you

watched an interesting documentary today on bet. it was called black and blue: legends of the hip hop cop. it was about the nypd's rap unit, a group w/in their force that profiles and tracks hip hop artists. or, i should say, it was a doc that attempted to look into whether or not police profile and track hip hop artists.

the documentary was interesting because new york says that it doesn't have a unit like this. but, there is confirmation from the miami pd that they have a unit of their own and were trained by nypd. and, there is this binder, from the nypd, that catalogs a ton of rappers. it had rap sheets, business ties, and on and on. and the documentary showed the binder. nypd, nope, we didn't make that. the doc also interviewed the nypd cop who basically was the main guy for this unit. but, no, we don't have a unit like that.

(a funny note, the documentary had commercials during it. i was watching and started thinking, there sure are a lot of black people in these commercials. that's odd. and then i remember, oh yeah, i'm watching black entertainment television.)


(i wrote this on sunday, but forgot about it. so, i'll post it now.)

new york police shooting

i was going to post a link to this story and make a joke about how it showed why you should avoid strip clubs. but, as i read the story, it just pissed me off. i'm sure there are a lot more details to come, but right now the new york police seem to be covering their butts. police fire 50 times, killing one man, injuring two others. the police thought the men might have a gun. they didn't.

now, i'm not saying it's cut and dry. the men did run their car into an undercover officer and an unmarked police minivan. but, the police aren't saying, at least not yet, that they ever identified themselves as police. they were in plain clothes, investigating a strip club. the men, who were shot, were at the club.